Chapter Twenty-Four The Return of the Curse
Noah and I scramble to a sitting position to see my mother and Jason in Jason’s parents’ living room with us. And they don’t look happy.
I bite my lip. “Um, hi, Mom,” I say.
We probably have swollen lips, and I’m pretty sure my bra is undone, but I’m not about to check now. Mom and Jason look furious. Actually, Mom looks furious. Jason’s harder to read.
“What’s going on here?” Mom says, her voice echoing off the walls. “You’re supposed to be at home. You’re grounded, remember? Instead you’re breaking and entering and trespassing. How did you even get into this house? I’m tempted to call the police—”
Jason puts his hand on Mom’s arm. “Neelam, it’s fine. My parents don’t mind their grandchildren using the house when they aren’t home. And Meera’s their grandchild now. You can punish her for lying and sneaking out, but this isn’t trespassing.” He nods at Noah. “Come on, Noah. I’ll drive you home.”
Noah’s eyes are narrow with distrust. And I don’t blame him. “I have my bike,” Noah says, standing.
“I can put it in my trunk,” Jason offers. “It’s pretty late. It would be safer if I drove you at this hour. And we can talk.”
Talk about what? I narrow my eyes at Jason. He probably wants to drive Noah home so he can lay into him for messing with his stepdaughter and endangering his campaign or something.
Noah’s not falling for it. He shakes his head. “Nah, I’m good. I know my way around.” He turns to me, and it looks like he wants to reach out and grab my hand but doesn’t. “I’ll see you later, Meera.”
He rushes out of the house through the front door.
I exhale after he leaves. Then glare at Mom. “How did you even know I was here?”
Mom sits stiffly on the armchair across from me. Jason stands awkwardly next to her. “I saw Keeley’s Instagram,” Mom says, “so I immediately knew you were still dating Noah, even though you promised me you weren’t. I called you, but you didn’t answer. So we left the party and went home.”
Crap. I forgot that Mom follows all my friends on Instagram, which was never a problem before because I never hid anything from her until this summer. I’m not very good at being bad.
“When you weren’t home,” Mom continues, “and weren’t answering your phone, I wanted to call the police.
I had no idea where you could be, because I trusted you enough not to track your phone’s location.
But then I checked the location of your old phone, and it showed it was here, so we came. Why do you have your old phone on you?”
“I don’t. I gave it to Noah.”
Mom narrows her eyes at me. “Are you sure that boy isn’t using you?
What else did you give him?” Her eyes sweep the room.
“Were you drinking again? Why does it smell like Indian food in here? Did he pressure you? You haven’t had sex with him, have you?
You’re not on birth control. Do I need to get you the morning-after pill?
I can’t believe after everything I’ve told you—”
I shake my head, scoffing. “Mom, stop. He’s not using me.
And no, we weren’t drinking. I told you, Noah doesn’t drink because alcoholism runs in his family.
” I glance at Jason, but his expression is still blank.
“And he didn’t pressure me to come here.
I pressured him. We came to go over some community college options for him next year because his original plan fell through.
And I ordered Indian for dinner because Noah has never had Indian food before.
And I gave him my phone because his brother threw his into the river.
And I have not had sex with him, but if I did, I wouldn’t be stupid enough to have unprotected sex.
” I take a deep breath, and it comes in ragged. There’s no going back. “I’m not you.”
Mom blinks at me as if I slapped her. Good. She’s always going on about all the mistakes she made as a teen, and about all the things she couldn’t do because she got pregnant so young. She clearly thinks I ruined her life.
A tear falls down my cheek then, and I wipe it away quickly. Mom’s mouth becomes a thin line. Her voice drops to a cold tone. “Meera Parveen Noorani, I have sacrificed—”
Jason puts his hand on Mom’s shoulder, and she turns to look at him like she’s coming out of a spell.
It’s so strange. Mom seems to calm, to relax immediately whenever he touches her.
They exchange one more look, another of their unspoken conversations, before she takes a deep breath and looks to me again.
She’s clearly still mad, but her shoulders aren’t hunched up in rage, ready to attack, like they were moments ago.
“Meera, you lied to me,” she says with a steady voice.
“You’re grounded, so you’re not supposed to even leave the house.
I had no clue where you were! And then to find you here…
kissing a boy you barely know! I expected more from you, Meera.
You’re better than this.” She shakes her head, disappointed.
“From now on you’re not going anywhere. No walks in the neighborhood, and no CROP.
As of today you have one hundred hours of community service, so there’s no reason for you to go back.
And hand over your phone too. If you want to let that boy keep your old phone, fine.
But you won’t have a way to contact him.
Now let’s clean all this, and you’d better be apologizing to Jason for coming to his parents’ house without permission. ”
Jason looks like he’s about to say it’s no problem again, but when he notices how my mom starts stiffly moving around the room, he wisely doesn’t.
No one says anything as we tidy up, or during the thirty-second drive back to Jason’s house. I go straight up to my room, blinking away the tears. Rosie is on my bed, as usual, and she starts purring and rubbing up against me when I sit.
“At least I still have you, girl,” I say through my tears. I pick her up and bury my face in her soft fur.
There’s so much I want to do. Call Keeley and Adanna and tell them what happened.
Call Sadie to tell her that we were caught and hopefully she won’t get in trouble for letting us into her grandparents’ house.
But I want to call Noah most. He said he loved me tonight.
What must he be thinking now? Is he going to try calling me?
Does this ruin everything for Noah and me?
I close my eyes. I don’t want to cry again. I need to focus. Okay, so Mom took my phone, but she didn’t take my laptop. It’s still in my backpack, along with my camera.
I take my computer out of my bag and turn it on.
It easily connects to the Wi-Fi in the house, which is good, I guess.
I half expected Mom to change the password.
The computer is so old, though, and the camera doesn’t work, so I won’t be able to video-call anyone.
I can email, but not Noah—because we never got to the point where he was actually applying for the college programs, so I don’t have his email address.
I don’t have Sadie’s email either. Or anyone else’s in Cherrybridge. I only have their Instagram accounts and phone numbers. I open Instagram on my computer for the first time ever, but I can’t get in because I have no idea what my password is. It’s on my phone.
I exhale. I end up emailing Adanna and Keeley together, telling them…
everything. I have no idea if they’ll check their email at this hour, but I have to get this out.
I attach a few pictures I took tonight—the half-eaten Indian food, the sunset from the big window in Sadie’s grandparents’ house, Noah’s and my legs intertwined and resting on the coffee table while we work on the spreadsheet, Noah’s face while he’s studying the course descriptions on my computer.
Seeing all the pics again makes my eyes well up. It’s so stupid. I am forever cursed, and there is no cure.
I exhale. The worst part of it is that Noah doesn’t even have his spreadsheet, so he won’t be able to apply for those schools without researching all this again. And I have no way of getting it to him.
I scroll through my email contacts and practically clap my hands when I see that I do have Sadie’s address. We were both cc’d on some pre-wedding plans months ago. I write a message to her, telling her everything that happened, and attach the spreadsheet. I ask her to find a way to get it to Noah.
There. Hopefully Sadie will be able to get this message to him. And hopefully I’ll be able to convince my mother to let me talk to Noah again.
And hopefully Noah is okay.